


worrier

by klaviergavout



Series: Prompt Bingo! [8]
Category: Cats (2019), Cats - Andrew Lloyd Webber
Genre: First Meetings, Friendship, Gen, How Do I Tag, finally got around to watching the new movie and munkustrap remains my fave, these two are the cutest friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2020-05-17
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:27:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24231328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/klaviergavout/pseuds/klaviergavout
Summary: Munkustrap is overthinking one night, bogged down with all the Jellicles' problems. He doesn't notice that he's dangerously close to falling through an open window...
Relationships: Munkustrap & Jennyanydots
Series: Prompt Bingo! [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1704583
Comments: 4
Kudos: 15





	worrier

**Author's Note:**

> I'm doing a prompt bingo to encourage me to write more -- the prompt for this one was 'Chance Encounters'.
> 
> I finally got around to watching the 2019 movie for the first time and was pleasantly surprised! I definitely prefer the old Jennyanydots, but something that really interested me about the new version was how close her and Munkustrap acted towards each other. I wanted to touch on that friendship, so this fic was born. Hope you enjoy!

Munkustrap had always been a worrier. From the moment he'd first opened his eyes he'd clung to his mother's side, every instinct telling him that her slightest shift in movement meant she was going away. He'd spent his childhood racing down alleyways with Tugger and Skimble at his side, but as the other two played and laughed and leapt about, he was always the one making sure they wouldn't get lost or bump into things or trap their claws on any litter lying about. Now, as the brand-new protector of the tribe, everything seemed to rest on his shoulders -- even the Jellicle Ball, which had been the highlight of his year for as long as he could remember. Now it was just another tick off the checklist.

Munkustrap would say he hated it, having to worry so much -- but that was just how he lived. He survived on _I'm fine's_ and _I can do it's_ and _don't worry, I'll make it happen's_. He didn't know anything else.

Tonight, he was mulling over a request from his youngest brother. "We've ran out of milk for the Milk Bar, Munk. Now we can't call it that! It's just the Bar!" the maine coon had cried, grabbing Munkustrap by the shoulders and shaking him about. Usually the Milk Bar was tended to by one of Tugger's posse, but of course _he_ was the one who had to source the drinks now, because _he_ was the protector, _he_ was the provider, _he_ was the cat everybody came to for favours.

It was all getting a bit much for Munkustrap. So much, in fact, that when his stressed-out pacing took him far too close to a ledge, when his foot slipped over the side and sent him flying through an open window, his first thought was _great, now someone's going to need something and I won't be there_. But when he heard an affronted "OW!" and a hiss from underneath him, all thoughts of the tribe went right out the window he'd fallen through. 

"Sorry, sorry, I'm so sorry," Munkustrap fretted, scrambling up off the floor and onto two legs, backing nervously into a counter that rose high above him. On the floor beneath him lay a tabby ginger cat, mumbling to herself and writhing around as she tried to hoist herself up. "I'm-- I'm Munkustrap. Protector of the Jellicle cats. And you are?"

"Jennyanydots," grumbled the cat on the floor. "I'm a Jellicle too, I'll have you know."

"Ah." 

Munkustrap felt his face heat up. How on Earth had he missed that fact? A name like Jennyanydots could only be a Particular name, but he'd never seen her before, not once. Unless of course she only showed up for the Jellicle Ball, in which case his memory didn't serve him well; with selenian energy crackling through his veins it was hard to memorise anyone's face, let alone a fellow Jellicle.

His thoughts were interrupted by a groan from the floor. "Gimme a hand here, O great protector," Jennyanydots snarked up at him, snapping her fingers impatiently. 

"Oh, right, um, of course." After helping Jennyanydots to her feet, Munkustrap surveyed his surroundings. Strange -- he'd never been here before. He'd prowled these streets a million times, knew almost every building inside-and-out, but the homely kitchen he'd tumbled into was completely unfamiliar. "Where... where am I?"

Jennyanydots grinned. "I thought you'd never ask!" She threw her hands out like she owned the place, spinning around with a belly laugh. "Welcome to my humble abode! _Le kitchen de Jenny._ " 

"Le what now?"

" _Le kitchen de--_ " she started to repeat, trying her best to replicate a French accent, but at Munkustrap's blank and nervous stare the joke was entirely lost; she huffed and crossed her arms, leaning against the side of a table leg as she glared at him. "Mine. My kitchen."

"I see," Munkustrap mumbled, feeling very out-of-place. Some leader he was. "I'm sorry for knocking you over."

"Yeah, yeah, you said that a hundred times," Jennyanydots droned. With one great slam, she knocked on the underside of the table and opened her mouth, catching a few stray cockroaches that fell from above. Munkustrap's ears twitched in disgust as she chewed, purring a little in contentment once she'd swallowed them down. "Mmm, that hit the spot. Want some, toots?"

"Uh -- no, no thanks."

They were silent for a while, staring each other down, the intruder and the intruded. Munkustrap would almost think it was a hostile sort of silence-- he'd had to deal with many of those from Macavity, after all -- if not for the fact that every once in a while Jennyanydots would reach behind her, pluck a squeaming cockroach from the underskirt of the table and munch away. It was obscene.

"You... you like eating these cockroaches?" Munkustrap said, cringing at the sight.

"Love 'em," Jennyanydots replied, mouth chock full of bug entrails. "Great source of protein."

"But don't you have a _family?_ " Munkustrap asked at last, gesturing to the collar round her neck. "They must be feeding you -- wait, wait, no, I don't mean it like th--"

"What, because I'm fat?" Jennyanydots gave him a look so sharp that Munkustrap wagered she might stop eating cockroaches and change her diet to Jellicle protectors. She strode right up to him and prodded an angry claw towards his chest. "I can tell you right now that compared to Mr. Garbage Can, my cockroach habit doesn't even bring me close to twenty-five pounds, thank you very much!"

"That's not what I meant," Munkustrap choked out, embarrassed beyond the highest degree. _Mr. Garbage Can_ \-- now that was a new one. Usually Bustopher Jones' nicknames were born out of fondness, even if they took a shot at his weight; but Jennyanydots seemed to have quite the nasty grudge. "Anyways, you -- you didn't answer my question."

She made to sit down beside him, sliding down the back of the counter until she was on the floor again. "Yeah, I have a human family here-- a pretty big one, too," the ginger tabby sighed, staring wistfully off into the distance. "But I might as well be on my own! It's not as if the humans do much work around here, anyway. Between the mice, cockroaches and the human kids I can never catch a break."

Munkustrap's eyes gleamed with something strange. Recognition?

"I know how you feel," he said under his breath -- just loud enough for the ginger queen to hear him, just quiet enough to settle his nerves.

"You do?"

"I think so," Munkustrap whispered softly in reply. When she raised her eyebrows, a knowing smirk teasing the edges of her lips, he gave her a defensive look. "What? What are you staring at me for?"

"Go on," she said, waving her hand in quick circles. "Tell me what's wrong. Seems you need to get something off your chest, and I don't mean to toot my own horn, but young Jenny here's a qualified cockroach therapist."

Munkustrap stared. Now she was a cockroach _therapist?_ What was she doing to these bugs before she led them to their deaths?

"But--"

"Ah, ah, ah," she admonished, holding up a hand. "I don't wanna hear it. You were the one who dropped into my kitchen and almost flattened me."

"I did _not_ almost flatten you," he snapped back, indignant, but his face soon softened. "I-- do you really want to know? Are you sure?"

Jennyanydots nodded eagerly, and Munkustrap sighed. 

"Okay," he said, taking a deep breath in. "Here goes."

He told her everything, from the start. Every stress-fuelled prowl, every heated argument, every sleepless night he'd spent overthinking. Every favour, every request that had been asked of him. Every demand. Every time someone would say to him _Munk, I can't do this_ which he faithfully followed up with o _f course you can, I'm right here with you._ The constant support. The legs to stand on. He was the Jellicles' leg to stand on, and in his opinion, he was about to give way.

Bitter tears sprung to his eyes and Munkustrap sniffed them back as much as he could. If Jennyanydots nuzzled against his side, offering him a comforting touch when he needed it most, then he didn't pull away -- but his head was so full of regrets and anxieties that maybe her comfort was just another one of the made-up scenarios that existed in his mind. Maybe it was just another daydream that he was clinging onto, relentlessly on loop in his head.

"You're a tough kid," Jennyanydots began at last, absent-mindedly licking her paws. "Is there something else you'd rather do?"

Munkustrap flinched. What did she mean, something else he'd rather do? He was born for this role, he had lived for this role. He'd earned the title of protector after years of keeping the Jellicles safe off his own bat. He could, and would, never do anything else. 

"No, of course not!" he cried, turning away from her with an affronted glare. But he'd come to realise that knowing look in her eyes, that silent ask for more. So he continued with a quiet, "I love being protector. Really, I do. It's just-- it's just so exhausting."

"I feel you there," Jennyanydots said, nudging him fondly in the shoulder. "Well, my window's always open if you ever need somewhere to escape to. Not that I'll be awake in the daytime though, so y'know, maybe keep your brooding to the evenings."

Munkustrap scoffed, a small smile gracing his face. "Thanks. I'll keep that in mind."

When he finally emerged from the kitchen it was almost morning, the hazy glow of dawn tapering out from beyond the London skyline. He'd really lost track of time, hadn't he? With a hint of regret in his gut, Munkustrap started to make his way back towards the junkyard -- but not two feet from the window he was pounced upon, sending him and his attacker rolling across the street. He hissed and spat and scratched in all directions, aiming to get away, but the glint of a spiked collar above him made him stop short.

"Alonzo, what--?"

"There you are," the brown tom panted out as he stared at the cat beneath him, concern streaked through his amber eyes. "I've been looking everywhere for you. Where have you been?"

"Out," Munkustrap grumbled, shoving his friend away from him and getting up from the floor with a pained hiss. "What's wrong now?"

"Well," Alonzo started, brushing himself off, "there's a infestation at the theatre and the queens are freaking _out._ Tantomile and Electra can't sleep and they're crying and it's gonna wake up the entire neighbourhood at this rate. Demeter practically begged me to get you."

Great, another problem he had yet to solve. Seems he wouldn't be getting any sleep tonight, but that was a given when it came to him. 

"What kind of infestation?" Munkustrap asked with a sigh, already formulating a plan to get rid of the pests before sundown. But then the penny dropped-- and his eyes went wide. "Cockroaches?"

Alonzo gave him a very suspicious look. "Uh, yeah. How did you guess?"

Munkustrap gave a gentle smile, turning to look at the window again. "I have a Gumbie cat in mind..."


End file.
